No Parking Anytime: Bud’s Jazz Records closing

So when the store in Pioneer Square opened at 11 a.m. this morning, he walked down the stairs into the little underground hole in the wall, where already a recording with a saxophone was playing in the background.

“It’s a Seattle icon,” Hermann said as he looked through the rows of cardboard boxes with LPs, under the old brass tuba that hung from the ceiling.

The store’s owner James Rasmussen, who moments before had been smoking a cigarette at the top of the stairs on South Jackson Street and First Avenue, had flicked his smoke away and was sitting on a stool behind the front counter. “Drum Machines Have No Soul,” said the bumper stickers stacked on the counter by the CDs of local musicians.

Selling jazz records in 2007 – or really in the nearly 26 years the store has been in business – isn’t the most profitable of ventures. “When you’re providing a public service – which the store has been doing – you have to consider your own wellness,” Rasmussen said.

Debts have been growing, as rents have gone up. The neighborhood has been changing. “When Bud opened the store, Pioneer Square was a community. There were a lot of artists who’d come in here. The people moving into the fancy condos don’t shop in the neighborhood,” he sad.

The store will begin trying to sell off its inventory in April at a discount. “We’ll be gone by the end of April,” Rasmussen said.

“I don’t want to have to pay another month of rent,” he said with a smile.

Living in the city has its great moments, the overheard conversations that stick in your mind, and the memorable scenes on the street. And, it has its hassles – like looking for a place to park and seeing signs that say “No Parking Anytime.” This is a periodic look at the times that describe life in Seattle. Let us know when you come across one of those moments. Email kerymurakami@seattlepi.com